


Flowers Blooming On The Pavement

by dragonsFall



Series: Neon Deviants [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, Codenames, Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26092180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsFall/pseuds/dragonsFall
Summary: A mission ends in tragedy after Enforcement Agents force Ace, Sabo, Luffy, and Marco to split up to lose them.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Series: Neon Deviants [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894444
Kudos: 4





	Flowers Blooming On The Pavement

Portgas D. Ace had been listening to a quiet murmuring from the communication device in his ear. Too quiet for him to tell who it was but just loud enough for him to hear. He was running through the back alleys, trying to avoid the damn Enforcement officers that had spotted him. Of course, those nosy assholes had to be poking around where they were trying to break in. The mission was simple. Break-in, clear some footage that had been found, and maybe steal some blank chips. It could never be that easy, unfortunately. The moment they were spotted, the four of them had scattered. Each going in a different direction. A tactic they all used to try and avoid all of them getting captured. As the quiet murmuring was replaced with the jarring sound of static, Ace skidded to a halt. His boots squealing against the pavement as he shook his head. The static always came from when the devices were dropped on the ground. Had Luffy dropped his visor again? He swore his little brother dropped it on almost every mission.  
  


“Strawhat! What did we tell you about dropping the damn visor!” Scolded Ace as he pressed a finger to the device in his ear.

“Wasn't me!” protested Luffy, “It's still on my face!” The sound of him smacking the forcefield of his visor could be heard.

If it wasn't Luffy then who exactly had dropped their communicator? Marco always removed his communicator if he planned on transforming just to avoid dropping it. He hated the sound as much as the rest of them. And Sabo… Sabo wouldn't have dropped his communicator. It was always firmly in his ear. There was a sense of dread that was forming in his gut, strangling him on the implications that maybe something had happened to Marco or Sabo. With a glance over his shoulder to determine that he was alone, Ace spoke once again. If someone had dropped it then they should've had time to get it back in by now

“Oi. Report in” He cursed himself for how afraid he was and how his voice sounded in his ears. Marco and Sabo had been doing this for years. He and Luffy were the newbies. They were the ones that would make mistakes like that. He reached up to adjust the mask on his face, the smooth glass of its digital surface was almost enough to calm him. Almost.

“Perched and out of reach, yoi” Commented Marco which meant that he was typically sitting somewhere he couldn't be reached. Not easily anyway. Escaping for him was always easy but a fiery bird was easy to spot.

“Safe and sound!” Called Luffy over the communicator. His voice was cheerful. Knowing him, he had beaten the hell out of the Enforcement agents that had gone after him. He had not been allowed on missions until quite recently and even then, his two brothers were protective.

They waited a moment, nothing from Sabos' end. Just the slight crackling of static but nothing as terrible as what they had heard earlier. That feeling of dread continued to strangle him. How long had they been waiting?

“Sabooooo!” Called Luffy over the communication line, thinking that maybe his big brother was still running. His voice was cheerful. Sabo didn't have powers to help him along so that was always a possibility. Still, Ace was waiting for confirmation. The silence stretched on. A constrictor had wrapped itself around Aces' heart like when Luffy was being overly quiet. Normally the teen would have been scolded for using Sabo's name on the communication line. But no one wanted to miss a possible communication from the blond.  
  
Ace had been about to speak when he started to see a crowd forming just beyond the alleyway he was sitting in, waiting for his brother to respond to their calls. He didn't even register that Marco suggested that Sabo had dropped his communicator somewhere and they would find him back at base. It was rare but it had happened before.

Ace began to make his way towards the crowd, hearing their shocked murmurs but not registering what was being said. That constrictor around his heart was slowly growing tighter as he tried to get a look at what they were gathering around. More words from Marco and Luffy that he didn't even hear as he became aware of how loud his breathing was. A few shoves through the crowd and he could see what they were gathered around.

A body. Red slowly inching its way outwards from where it lay on the cruel pavement. Ace felt like he couldn't get enough air into his lungs as tears began to gather in the corners of his eyes. He finally ripped his mask away from his face in an attempt to get more air as he moved towards the corpse. All despite his better judgment.

There, lying on the pavement and already dead, was Sabo. The glass of the blond's mask was shattered, pixels flickering in and out of existence as it struggled to function. He had fallen. Maybe pushed from the building he was laying in front of. His blond hair was stained by the blood, spread out like a halo around his head. His clothing was the same as it had been when they left for the mission. Ace kneeled in that blood around his brother's body, not caring about the sticky feeling on his knees. He reached out and pulled the mask away from Sabos' face. He was dead. Keeping his face a secret wasn't important anymore.

“S-Sabo…” Managed Ace through a voice that devolved into a sob. The blond brother he had thought dead for ten years was here lying dead on the pavement. The brother he had just gotten the chance to reconnect with after seeing him in the subway station months ago. The brother who had taken his last name despite having no memory of who he was exactly. His eyes were closed as if he had been accepting of his fate. Why exactly had he gone to the roof of the building? Ace heard the sirens but it didn't occur to him that they were coming in his direction until someone commented on the fact that they were coming. Sabo couldn't be dead.

“Oni” Marcos ' voice came through the communicator, calm and collected as he always was. Too long had Ace been silent and a hint of worry was present in the older man's tone.  
  
“Phoenix. I need you to come to my location” Ace said in a voice that shook with the raw emotion that was present. “Strawhat. Return to base. We’ll meet you there” He didn't need to send his location for Marco to find him. His face mask was equipped with a tracker. In case of emergencies. They would have ended up tracking Sabos' mask if it had come down to it. Thankfully Luffy didn't argue. Something in Aces tone had told him that it was important that he didn't.

  
Marco would arrive just as the ambulance was pulling up. Ace saw the expression on the bird's face change as he took in the sight of Sabo. Mirroring the emotions that Ace was certain were written all over his face. Without having to say anything, the blond was carefully cradled in the Phoenix's talons, a shift in size allowing him to carefully hold the limp body. Ace didn't need to be told twice to climb on to Marcos back. Was he even strong enough to carry them both? The question left Aces' mind as Marco lifted off to get them away from where they were. The mask he had been holding was safely tied around his neck but it was heavy. Physically and emotionally. There would be no cheeky grin to cause it to shift into that stupid cartoony cat face.   
  
Ace tried to wrap his head around the fact that Sabo was gone. Truly gone this time. There would be no surprise return. No way of making up for all of the time they lost. Tears dripped down into the blue feathers tickling his bare chest, blood was drying on his knees, and somewhere below them, Luffy was heading towards the base. And with another stab to the heart, he knew he would have to figure out how to let Luffy know that Sabo was dead. But that was a problem for when they landed. For now, he focused on the beat of Marcos' wings. And the precious memories he had of his now-dead brother.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to request a fic? Feel free to contact me on my Tumblr: clockworkPanic


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